16 May Please may we come in? Or US Visa application

The official start date for the Caribbean hurricane season is 1 June and we can either to go north or south to be out of the danger zone until 30 October. We would like to go north to cruise the east coast of America, but to enter the States on a non signatory carrier (commercial plane or ship) and to be able to stay five months we need a B2 Non Immigration visa and to get this one submits a long application form, pay $160 each processing fee and book an interview.

We began the process when we were in Curacao in December filing in the online forms and submitting photographs. Like Bahamas, they also process third country nationals, but we fell foul of the Christmas holidays with no appointment dates available until January by which time we would be in Cartagena so when we reached Bahamas our details were already in the system and we could proceed straight to payment and booking an interview. We got a date for six days later.

On interview day we set off with our paperwork, checked and re-checked, arriving at the Consulate thirty minutes early only to be informed the system had crashed and all interviews for that day were cancelled. Could we come back in a week's time? It was Hobson's choice. However, back on board I logged on to the online booking system and was delighted to find a time available next day. I quickly booked it.

On the second attempt to have our case assessed it was raining hard. It was a wet walk in to town, but the system was working. We passed security checks and joined the queue, or line in US speak, to have our documents checked. The lady took our papers confirming application numbers and checked her computer. She checked again and talked to a colleague. Oh dear! What now? The computer says 'no'. Because we had submitted our forms to the consulate in Curacao they had to request them from there. Could we take a seat while they waited, and by the way, the office closes in thirty minutes time at 11am?

It was a slow thirty minutes. At 10.59 we were recalled to the desk. A more senior lady explained they couldn't find the form in their system, Curacao hadn't replied, was I sure the application was confirmed accepted? Yes, I had printed the page 'confirmation of application'. But this was our lucky day. At the very last minute, 11.15am Curacao replied with the documents attached. Now we could continue with the process.

We were the last people in the line for that morning. Four officers were interviewing Bahamian hopefuls, asking most personal questions about reason to visit US for long stay, employment, family ties, etc. What would they ask us? In the end almost nothing. We got the cheery, helpful officer. He checked passports, asked a couple of questions of why we were applying and confirmed visa granted. He didn't ask to see proof of funds and when asked why he said I can see you've been travelling continually for eleven years and that's enough for me. What he probably meant was a couple of grey haired retired biddies on a boat aren't a threat to US security, nor will they be looking for work.

Three days later we collected our passports and visas from a DHL office. Job done and we're going north for the hurricane season.